Inside the World's Most Luxurious Abandoned City (never seen before)

foreign between an act of conflict and in it there's an abandoned International Airport yeah this is nuts this is nuts this is a this is a bullet this is a used bullet look at this dude like Frozen in Time foreign [Music] [Music] disco rock and roll and flared pants are taking over the world the Vietnam War has ended and it was a cultural revolution celebrating peace and love to end the war and bring peace with honor in Vietnam Hollywood celebrities are flocking to what many call The Jewel of the Mediterranean between 1970 and 1974 this place became one of the most popular tourist destinations on the planet attracting endless celebrities at the time luxury hotels were built everywhere in this thriving growing city that many dreamed of visiting in their lifetime but this paradise happened to be located in a country where an imminent conflict had been brewing for decades for all the dispute between the two communities president macarius made his business the circus once again feel genuinely threatened although today you'd expect such a tourist destination to be in the south of France or along the Italian Coast it's in fact located in a country not too many know too much about Cyprus the history of this country is immensely complex having served as a highly strategic location since the dawn of time but what led this small nation of about 600 000 people to the breaking point we prepared to be dead than to live under the Turkish Authority what led this country to be divided into four and how did such a popular tourist destination get destroyed that left abandoned for 47 years and overnight get turned into a ghost town three times the size of Chernobyl very surreal strange and eerie we are about to go on potentially one of the most unique abandoned places we've ever explored because I don't believe anyone has ever been allowed to get actually inside and documented freely here we go another extension you know what you can do right now you can subscribe to this YouTube channel because 50 of the freaking people that watch it are not subscribed can you believe that can you believe that no foreign [Music] Drew is here somewhere so we're gonna find him and we're gonna prank him prankski I see him I see him okay do we come up from behind yeah let's see if we can get up from here whoa okay because his reaction sucked we're gonna do it yeah okay [Music] joining me on this trip is my good friend and YouTuber Nathaniel Drew who I most recently traveled to Albania with we are in Cyprus welcome dude you're welcome welcome the next morning we met with the man who actually organized this impossible idea for us to be some of the first people in the world to document this abandoned city Johnny Harris it's even taller than me what are we doing right now we are moving into a country that doesn't exist right now right next to a piece of land that belongs to no one right next to an EU country yeah unfortunately what Johnny said is a bit more complicated than that and quite hard to understand so if you wanted to more thoroughly dive into this conflict you can go watch Johnny's four videos that he'll be making here but I'll do my best to give you a high level version to understand as Cyprus had belonged to many empires over centuries in the 1900s there was a growing movement in Greece to take back some of the land that had once belonged to them including Cyprus where 78 of the country spoke Greek the problem was that another 18 of the population were turkish-speaking cypriots with Rising tension between the two sides it eventually escalated to tragic intercommunal violence erupting in 1963. at this stage the Turkish cypriots were declaring that it would be impossible ever again to live in harmony with their Greek compatriot leading to thousands of Turkish cypriots fleeing their villages to safer areas and then 11 years later in 1974 a coup was attempted by Greece to take over the country five days later that turkey responded by invading the country and never left the turkish-speaking minority fled their houses all over the country to the North and the greek-speaking ones fled their homes in the North to the South never to come back to their homes again a buffer zone was created by the U.N to separate the two sides leading Cyprus to become the most militarized country in the world per capita the north became the unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus a country only turkey otherwise recognizes in the South stayed as Cyprus leaving varusha the ghost town we are on our way to now once inhabited by greek-speaking cypriots abandoned by the northern Turkish side traveling between the two sides was only allowed again in 2003 and entering this Ghost Town had been highly prohibited for decades until this year oh my God today's the day we are going inside the varosha ghost town with permission from the Turkish military and from the UN we are going to be some of the first people to ever capture this ghost town and definitely the first to ever drone it so what you're about to see has never been seen before we have to stay on the roads no going inside any of the buildings if we do we get arrested there's going to be someone from the Press office and someone from the Turkish military escorting us at all times in the whole place is rigged with cameras this specific place was always seen as a bargaining chip it was never settled with Turks it was always sort of a war zone like it was like a part of the war and it's right here on the border of North and South six months ago when the government here was like oh by the way we're opening this up and now people can come and have ice cream here and look at their old house it's really painful for the people who who lived here who were like this is my place like I thought we were going to get it back and and the Turkish Republic is just like nope we'll decide how it works nuts it's like beautiful beach idyllic perfect and then the cuts off and then it's like trauma of the past [Music] it's a little ice cream truck playing ice cream music and then behind us is just decaying it's weird to see how they're like I guess monetizing this destruction yeah the scary thing too is you can see every single building is completely Fallen apart because it's not just abandoned this whole city was also bombed so [Music] [Music] [Music] the silence inside this place is uh hard to fathom inside a city and you feel like it should be a lot of laughter and children playing and couples here on their honeymoon but instead it's just Decay and Dead Silence this is Cafe Edelweiss it was like the like Central like coffee shop hangout spot in barosha Imagine like hordes of people like here on the sort of Central Area bullets all over that building it's very heartbreaking to walk through a place like this just goes to show that at the end of the day the real casualties of War are always the civilians you look around and you wonder like was this really worth it was all this waste after building such a beautiful town worth the destruction worth the disagreement seeing how vast and haunting this empty city was only left us with more questions as to what this city must have been like we made a call out to the yes fam to see if we could actually meet someone who had witnessed these events and we're lucky enough to meet a family willing to come and visit their old house with us so we have decided to come back and I put out a message on Instagram a few days ago and Vic who's in the yes fam responded to me and so your family um lived here yes and they had to flee when The Invasion happened and your family hadn't been back in 47 years until they opened it yeah to this place yes yeah so how old were you when you lived here 12 to 39 39. and then my father was born here I was born here in 1964. in the house that we're gonna see later the three generations are walking in front of us and it's such an eerie frame when you really think about what this means this was the town that the grandfather built the house in their house is literally just around the corner of this place and they knew every single family and shop owner on the street not to just see them strolling around this ghost town that they once lived in is really hard to wrap my head around I've never been inside an abandoned place with people that actually used to live in that place before so this is very surreal strange and eerie this is the Riviera Hotel that's where we had our last Pete party in June 1974. [Music] this was a paradise it it was uh it was I mean and and it hurts just to look at it I mean abandoned rotting I I only hope that one day we will be able to come back for good okay this cannot go on forever I mean I mean it's it's a shame it's simply shame have you seen it [Music] that's our house the tall building on the left which one that one right there yeah that one right there was the whole house yours well it's four stories yeah okay and we were renting out the three floors on the top it's right there huh it's crazy if you if any of us cross this you would be arrested for trying to go to your own house if they see you getting off the road okay they are not kind okay at least that's what can I say I mean your house looks almost intact I mean it's held up really well compared to a lot of other buildings yeah it shows the care that he took it's very difficult it's um [Music] you buy a bike and you somebody steal it how you fit or your bike you are 10 years old how you feel you are crying and you are saying I want my bike back I won the bike back I'm crying but who is going to give it to me who is going to allow me to stay there they must have let something behind Okay my dad was saying that the letters I used to write to your mother when we were engaged are still there where I left them on the corner of cabinet I believe it's there I believe it's there we are exchange letters every day for 10 months I will send her a letter and she was sending me at the time in the morning is it strange for you all to walk here knowing I mean having all these memories it's it's it doesn't feel real being here [Music] I can't see it how does it feel about it how are you feel like a lion in a cave they open a small window but I cannot call out to go to my house to to touch it but I don't want to go and touch it I want to go and stay there and live there if you were allowed would you want to move back here yeah yeah definitely if their houses is um let's say destroyed completely they will come and stay put their tent to stay there after an extremely emotional and eye-opening day we wanted to better understand this conflict by getting the perspective of the Turkish side and after reaching out to the s-fam tuberc was kind enough to take us to his grandmother who experienced this conflict firsthand from the Turkish perspective you were born here on the Northern side I did in Nicosia when I meet people in Europe where are you from I'm from Cyprus so then you need to speak Greek now no and I don't speak Greek I speak Turkish so it's like even outside of Cyprus I still feel the division because most of the time the whole world is a little bit ignorant about the whole situation here yeah so his grandma had to flee from the south to the north and he's never even asked her about her story because he's afraid of how traumatic it is for her to even even count it hello how do you say hello so what do you want to ask to her I'd love to ask her first like you know where was she born how was it living before the separation I had like Greek neighbors and like Turkish neighbors like we were just breaking up and like we were having coffee together one day in my house one day their house and like everything was fine there wasn't any problem Gary can go to through just realized that day that Greek people are getting some um guns and like other stuff getting ready for something and they just wanted to escape they were just kind of hiding from Greek people because God knows what would happen if they saw them trying to flee she was just like seeing the guns happening like shooting is happening like hearing devices it was like if I say I put my hand outside of the window or something I will just like got shot if they stayed in her house she knew that they would kill them she'd been back to that house since she left or are you carrying anywhere she went there but there was nothing inside they just like basically took everything they destroyed everything they just burnt her clothes and like her husband's clothes and everything there was even like nothing to take and they just basically started a new life from to point zero because they didn't have anything left and they had four children at that time she's like tell them that it was really hard to just start from nothing disturbing them I wanted but I don't believe it she also wants to see them be in peace they don't she doesn't want to see them get any harm to themselves you know thanks for I know this is a very vulnerable [Music] so she's asking coffee sure to make it like the old characters um yeah you should if I come to visit you you need to have this coffee as humans our brains are sadly very binary and the way that we look at people around us we either see people as us or as the other whatever criteria we use to separate ourselves and once we make that distinction Studies have shown that our empathy towards the other is greatly diminished leading to the wars that have existed since the dawn of time at one point the Greek and turkish-speaking cypriots lived peacefully together yet at the moment larger forces pushed the local inhabitants to identify with a side and pin them against each other it created a slippery slope where the only ones who lost were the ones who once saw each other as one in many ways I do feel that as a global Community if we could all remember that we really are on the same side that maybe we could more efficiently solve some of the global problems our planet is currently facing but maybe those are just my hopes as a disillusioned Optimist in the meantime I hope that our stories like this can serve as a reminder and plant a seed for a more inclusive perspective in your view of the world this trip reminded me of a quote that my friend barakhan said to me a year ago when I traveled around the Kurdish region of Iraq with him nowadays politicians they just spread hate to divide Us in order to rule us easily unfortunately there was no fairy tale ending in this story this conflict is considered one of the more complicated ones to solve in recent history yet many young locals feel it's been forgotten by the rest of the world so towards the end of my trip seeking answers I was introduced to a young bi-communal organization called the bi-communal network bringing together young people from both sides to bridge the gap and initiate conversation to hopefully one day live in a country with peace if people are still hopeful and show to the world that there is a community there's more community that feel Superior nothing else no other labels no Greek side no turkey side to build the strong foundations for younger people to start planning on a better side route like a United Cyprus it needs to be more sort of a process not just other things more as something to build up on and not just something we can do in one night and start working towards reconciliation if people just say do you want peace yes I do by the time they say that and they believe it I believe they will start building the new unified Island [Music] thank you for watching as you can imagine based on how complicated this story was this was a tricky story to tell and writing those voiceovers was a Minefield and one of the most complicated stories I've ever had to tell before so I appreciate you watching all the way until the end before we go I do want to thank the sponsor for today's video which is audible I'm currently listening to a very relevant book to today's episode called tribes by Seth Godin which explains how we all have the innate ability to become great leaders and create real change which is completely what I saw with the youth in Cyprus I've been traveling a lot over the past few months and having audible allows me to listen to amazing audiobooks like this one wherever I am if you go to audible.com yes Theory or text yes Theory 500 500 you get one free audiobook a 30-day trial and you get to explore the new plus catalog which has thousands of Select audiobooks podcasts audible Originals guided Fitness meditation program sleep tracks for better rest and more audible members also get one free credit a month good for any title and the Premium Selection of best sellers or new releases to keep forever so go to audible.com yes Theory or text yes Theory to 500 500 to start your free trial and we will see you next week [Music]

Channel: Yes Theory

Views: 5,140,859

Keywords: yestheory, seek discomfort, yes theory strangers, yes theory travel, yes theory subscribers, getting out of your comfort zone, Amazon FBA, cyprus, yes theory abandoned, yes theory ghost town, ghost town, biggest ghost town, ghost city, deserted city, yes theory exploration, yes theory documentary, documentary, travel documentary, cyprus conflict, cyprus buffer zone, greek cypriots, turkish cypriots

Id: vdkQWgZLrYA

Length: 22min 30sec (1350 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 18 2021